Bob Arum Reveals How Much It Cost Him to Stage Fights Without Fans

Top Rank’s Bob Arum has revealed the harsh reality of staging fights in the bubble during the pandemic. The American promoter spoke about the financial burden of having big fights without fans or half full arenas. Additionally, he revealed how much it cost him to host the fights.

Arum is one of the sport’s most prominent promoters. Moreover, as he has many big-name fighters on his roster, the cost of setting up fights for these superstars without fans is a massive challenge.

Speaking on the Barbershop Conversations on YouTube, Arum confirmed they would not do any more events in the Bubble, as gate revenue is a huge thing for sporting events.

He added, “I’m very proud of what we did in the bubble. But it was costing me between five and six hundred thousand dollars a show, to do each show, in addition to the cost of the fighters’ purse. And there was no revenue against those expenses.”

These comments showed how much Arum had to forego to put on the big events in the MGM Grand bubble. Moreover, it also explains the complications he had to overcome to put on the shows that Top Rank did.

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Bob Arum makes a big claim about the Oscar Valdez vs. Miguel Berchelt fight

The Oscar Valdez vs. Miguel Berchelt fight on Saturday was also in the MGM Grand bubble. Therefore, Top Rank missed out on the gate revenue and other additional sources too. However, Arum made an intriguing claim about the event.

He said, “If this fight, Berchelt, and Oscar had been with fans, we would have sold out Staples Center or the MGM Grand, and that revenue from ticket sales, would have exceeded our costs.” 

With this comment, Arum confirmed that the fight was not profitable to them.

This is not the first time the promoter has voiced his opinions on the losses caused by the pandemic. The American got into a controversial verbal battle with his fighter Terence Crawford over accusations of Crawford being too expensive to promote.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Arum doesn’t want to stage fights behind closed doors anymore. However, this could spell bad news for fans as they would have to wait a while until they get to see the big-name Top Rank fighters back in the ring.

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